Party Phone Number

Party Email Address

Donate Button

Front Page Slider Quote

"I want to make this province a better place to live with a brighter future."

Front Page Quote Sig

Barry Petten, Advanced Education, Skills and Labour Critic for the Official Opposition, said new figures from Statistics Canada show the consequences of the Liberal decision to waste time on an expat survey rather than address...

Tuesday, January 22, 2019

St. John’s, NL (January 22, 2019) – Barry Petten, Advanced Education, Skills and Labour Critic for the Official Opposition, said new figures from Statistics Canada show the consequences of the Liberal decision to waste time on an expat survey rather than address the ‘plain-as-day’ problems driving people away.

New numbers from Statistics Canada show that last year was the worst on record for births in Newfoundland and Labrador, with deaths exceeding births by 900.

Petten said, “The birth rate stats show just how wrong it was for the Liberals to impose a levy – essentially a head tax on Newfoundlanders and Labradorians, penalizing people for living here.”

“The Liberals wasted time surveying expat Newfoundlanders and Labradorians on the factors driving and keeping them away when it was already clear the main factor was the Liberals’ decision to pursue a high-tax agenda that cost jobs and hurt the local economy.”

“What the province has needed for the past three years is a reversal of the Liberal taxes in order to create a climate for job growth and economic resurgence so people could afford to return home and stay here.”

Petten said he believes the government discovered in their survey what they should have already known – “that it’s their own policies that have been driving our province’s economic decline.”

The Liberals announced in their Immigration Plan that in 2017, they would “Survey Expatriate Newfoundlanders and Labradorians to Gain Insight on Ways to Entice Them to Return.” They stated: “it is important to ensure that those who want to return have that opportunity. Our government will survey Newfoundlanders and Labradorians who have left our province to better understand their reasons for leaving and to gain insight on what would entice them and their families to return to their home. The findings of this survey will be used to inform the development of specific initiatives aimed at retaining and repatriating Newfoundlanders and Labradorians.”

On February 22, 2018, the Liberals announced: “Following a Request for Proposals, Goss Gilroy Inc.has been approved to conduct a survey of expatriates to better understand their reasons for leaving the province and gain insight into what would entice them and their families to return. The survey is being circulated through social media and other communications.” The website indicates the survey has concluded.